The Lagos State Residents’ Registration Agency Law of 2011

This is another law from 2011 that residents of Lagos State may have missed. The law was enacted to “establish the Lagos State Residents’ Registration Agency and for connected purposes.”

It seems to me that the aim of the Lagos State Residents’ Registration Agency Law and the agency it creates is to develop a working database of all residents of Lagos State, with a view to providing better services to Lagosians. The rationale being that with such a database, the state agencies can plan and assess their programmes and services in a more scientific way.

The functions of the agency are as follows: “(1) Create a reliable database of all residents in Lagos State with a view to – (i) providing useful information for social welfare, political, security, business, employment, financial activities, housing and demography statistics for health related matters such as provision of health insurance; (ii) facilitating unified planning and implementation of development projects. (2) Establish the relevant infrastructure for the creation of a residents’ information database for every resident of Lagos State with a view to – (i) producing residency cards for all residents of Lagos State; (ii) ensuring easy identification of residents; (iii) generating health statistics in the state for health insurance scheme; (iv) verifying compliance with relevant laws and regulations; (v) providing reliable information for making policy planning and implementation. (3) Produce guidelines for data to be contained in the registration form; and (4) Advise the government on mode of collecting data from the public.”

Now, here is what concerns individual Lagosians. Section 14 of the law states “(1) As from the commencement of this law – (i) every person residing in the state shall register with the agency within three months; (ii) any person who moves into a long term accommodation in the state after the commencement of this law shall, within 30 days of moving into the accommodation, register with the agency. (2) A resident shall notify the agency of a subsequent change of name or address appropriately. (3) Every landlord (individual or corporate) in the state shall notify the agency of any new resident in their premises and shall inform the person of the need to register with the agency.”

The state, through the agency, will issue a Certificate of Registration upon registering a resident in the state. For ease of administration, the agency will establish registration centres in the local government councils and local council development areas.

According to the law, “A resident means a person who resides temporarily or permanently in a long term accommodation in the state; and ‘long term accommodation’ means renting a room(s), flat, duplex and whole house for a continuous period of six months and above.

There is the current national debate about whether our focus should be on state of residency or state of origin. I am very curious about the outcome of the polls being conducted by the National Assembly and how that will influence changes in our Constitution. But beyond that, Lagos State is beginning to feel like a Big Brother State and I believe that there is such a thing as over-legislation, even though some people may disagree (going from some e-mails I received in the past). Thankfully, there is no penalty for non-compliance.

It seems that every four years, or so, we are all put through the rigmarole of being captured in one database or another — national identification, voter register, sim card registration, vehicle licence, etc. Millions and billions are budgeted for the exercise, equipment flown in from abroad, and we come out en-masse, hoping that this time they will get it right. What I wonder is why none of these systems talk to each other so that we are not constantly spending mega sums of money to go through the same exercise by many different names. There is a new identification registration being announced and, once again, we shall all troop out because none of us wants to be left out (just in case there’s a share of a pot of gold at the end of the exercise).

Lagos State can plan and provide services for residents without this law. There are many ways that they can approximate their liability without burdening Lagosians with another law: census figures, established demographic patterns, individual and corporate tax information, number of patients treated in public and private health institutions, number of cars registered in the state, etc. What needs to happen is that the systems must start talking to each other and the only way that can happen is when we all have a unique number or code identifying each person — this is what the upcoming registration promises. I am not holding my breath on this one, but I will show up and go through the process.

Anyway, the Lagos State Residents’ Registration Agency Law came into force on June 27, 2011 and, according to the law, all residents of Lagos State had three months after that date to register with the agency. I do not know how many Lagosians are like me, but I did not hear about this law until sometime in November of 2012. How do you enforce a law that people are unaware of?

Ignorance of the law, they say, is no excuse, but hey… it is a good thing the law does not state a penalty for not registering. Given the pattern of fines and jail terms in recent Lagos State laws, I bet this was an oversight. On the other hand, the penalties may be in a supplement or in the regulations, which the commissioner of the agency has the powers to make.

laughable indeed. Start by compiling the drivers record to match banking information. In which country do people go and queue up to register their home address. The last time I was Asiwaju’s gas station in downtown Baltimore, giving them my phone number was enough for them to send me coupons at my home address.

Abiola Yussuff

Majority of government developmental policies are always formulated with sincere intentions for the general good of the people but the problem most often is the people who are placed in charge of their implementation. Depending on the agenda of the government in power, this is why I opened with majority of the policies, the agenda ab initio may be to establish agencies to compensate party supporters, friends and affiliates, so in this case the intention is not the agency to meet any proposed set objectives. That on one side, on the second outlook, the government may have good intention but the people put in place may see such appointment as a life time opportunity of planning for their unborn generation. And because the Nigerian political structure is porous and administratively defective makes it possible for any individual or any set of people or better still a group of cabal as they known in this part of the world. The success that the administration Fashola is able to achieve so far is attributing to the way he started in 2007. His zeal for professionalism, due process and effective supervision of both projects and personnel not only kept his commissioners and civil servants on their toes. But also made contractors realise that it no longer a case of business as usual. So I wish to implore our amiable Governor to make the best use of his remaining tenure to a service entirely devoted to good service for the general good of the people

omoba

Ur not suggesting Baltimore is in Epe? Or is it Lekki? Or Badagry?
Abeg make we hear word joor. Who care wether registration na through ya keke spoke, mtschew…!!!

leke

We need a unique identification architecture in order to curb myriad of abnormalities in the country. The critical issue herein is the continuation/policy-sommersalt/inter-connectivity of these identification system both @ d Federal & state level. This is a welcome development and we wish Fashola well as he strives to make Lagos State “the London of Nigeria”. Eko o ni baje o.

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